


Fit

by lha



Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Culmetca, Food Issues, Multi, exercise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-04-11
Packaged: 2019-04-21 16:14:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14288652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lha/pseuds/lha
Summary: Paul and Gabriel's morning run does not go as planned.





	Fit

**Author's Note:**

> Much thanks to my first beta in FAR too long, the lovely Miss Amy - if you appreciate her efforts as much as me, let me know in the comments and I'll be sure to pass it on!

Hugh looked up from his desk and the paper he was trying to write at the sound of the front door opening. He glanced at the chronometer concerned that he’d lost track of time, but he was right, it was only eleven-hundred and they’d barely been gone an hour. Cocking his head, he listened to see if he could hear them but other than a couple of thumps and their feet on the floorboards, he couldn’t make anything out. Standing up, he walked out into the hallway, stopped at the top of the stairs, and watched for a moment. The intention had been for them to go for a ‘proper’ run (Gabriel’s words), so he hadn’t expected them back for at least another hour and a half and while Paul was certainly the more reluctant of the pair, he hadn’t expected him to give up the ghost - out of sheer stubbornness, if nothing else. 

“What happened?” he asked, trotting down the stairs towards where the pair of them leaning against the wall . They seemed to both be in one piece, though their arms were slung over each other’s shoulders, sweat drying at the necks of their t-shirts and shorts tight against their thighs.

“Nothing” and “He passed out” were offered simultaneously.

“I didn’t pass out,” Gabriel said pointedly.

“You lost consciousness and fell over,” Paul said, clearly frustrated. 

“I tripped .”

“I’m not having this conversation again,” he said, pushing off the wall and looking to Hugh he continued, “Would you talk some sense into him? I’m going for a shower.”

“Well,” Hugh said, with a sigh.

“I stumbled. It’s embarrassing, but I’m fine.” 

“Well, at least let me take a look at those scrapes,” Hugh said, gesturing through to the kitchen which had the best light and had become his de-facto surgery. Letting the other man go first allowed Hugh to watch his gait, the way he moved down the long corridor to the back of the house. 

“You didn’t hit your head?” he asked.

“No. I don’t think so, no.” His path wasn’t particularly straight, but that could have been down to a number of things and Hugh wasn’t unduly concerned until he slowed suddenly and veered into a wall. 

“Gabe?” he said, closing the distance between them. His body was pressed against the wall from shoulder to waist, his head hung down with eyes closed, and his breathing was ragged and shallow. 

“Ok, easy now,” Hugh said, stepping close enough in to provide some support “Still with me?”

“Mmmm,” came the less than convincing response. 

“Ok, let’s just sit down here,” he said as Gabriel’s legs gave out under him. Managing to turn him as they slid down, Gabe ended up with his back against the wall and Hugh propped his legs up to stop him sliding any further. “That’s it, forehead on your knees and breathe deeply for me. Paul?” he called calmly in the direction of the stairs. There had been a conspicuous lack of sound from the shower but the fact that he’d had half an ear out was only confirmed when moments later the sound of bare feet came from the stairs. 

“Shit,” Paul said when he arrived in the hallway. 

“Would you grab the medkit from the kitchen?” Hugh asked lightly. 

“I… sure,” he agreed, stepping slightly awkwardly over them.

“Gabe?” Hugh asked again.

“Uh huh,” came the muffled reply. 

“I’m just going to check your head and make sure you didn’t catch it on something ok?” he said, starting to work his way around the skull to see if he could find any indication of a blow.

“Everything’s just a bit swimmy,” Gabriel murmured. 

“Hmm? Did everything go wobbly on you?”

“ ‘t’ll pass…”

“I’m sure it will, but I’d like to know why it’s happening, wouldn’t you?”

“Hmm…”

“Stay with me Gabe,” he said, pinching his earlobe firmly. “How was the run going?”

“Rubbish. I couldn’t find my stride.”

“That was my fault,” Paul said, returning with the case, “I can’t match his usual pace.”

“Not true…” Gabe protest, his head still between his knees.

“Want to tell me your version?” Hugh asked Paul quietly as he pulled out the tricorder. 

“He wasn’t right. He said he just wasn’t in the zone, but when I suggested he stretch on ahead and that I’d just keep plodding along, he wouldn’t. That was maybe 5k in. By the time we hit 10k, I don’t know, he was in front of me, but he slowed down and then he just sort of collapsed. When I got to him he was awake, but, it took a minute before he started insisting he was fine and he had just tripped.”

“Did it feel like this, Gabe? When you were running?” he asked, as the readings started scrolling across the handheld monitor. 

“Mmm a bit. It passed though. It went away and then it came back.” His voice sounded distant, as though he still wasn’t really back with them, which wasn’t surprising given what it was Hugh was seeing.

“I suspect it went away because your head was at the same height as your heart suddenly,” Hugh said absently.

“No…” Gabriel said, “It went away before it came back…”

“You were dizzy before?” Paul asked, “And then it came back and you went down?”

“Hmmm, it went away the first time.”

“I think most people would still have taken that as a sign to stop and rest,” Hugh said, “What happened after that?” he asked Paul. 

“We made it to a bench, I got him to drink some water and we had a fight about where we were going and how we were going to get there,” Paul replied, sitting down on the floor, close enough that he could place a hand on Gabe’s bare leg.

“Fine…”

“You were about as fine then as you are now,” Paul said gently, “I was going to call for a transport to Medical but… he did seem better than he had been. We got on the local transport and walked up the road. Slowly.”

“Well, a transport to Medical wouldn’t have done any harm,” Hugh said, “but we both know that someone needs to have lost a limb before he acknowledges he needs to see a doctor.”

“Don’t need to go,” Gabe said. “It’s ok.”

“Well, you’re here now,” Hugh replied, keen to avoid another argument. “Did you have breakfast this morning?” 

“I had… a thing, a drink, when I got up. S24.”

“Supplement 24?” Hugh asked, moderating his tone and gesturing for Paul to stay quiet. 

“Yeah,” Gabe shivered and Hugh pulled off his sweater and draped it over his shoulders.

“How about yesterday, can you tell me how your day went?” he asked, reaching into his far from standard domestic kit for a hypospray.

“I was at work yesterday.”

“You were, you got up early didn’t you?”

“Up, S24, run to work,” Gabe said, his head still resting on his knees but his hand moving consciously to grip Paul’s.

“And what then?” Hugh asked, checking the scanner again and selecting a vile. “Did you have breakfast?”

“Shower, dressed, fruit. I had, grapefruit and orange and blueberries. I like blueberries.” 

“I know you do, love,” Hugh said.

“How about the rest of your day?”

“Meetings. Then it was… it was academy day.”

“And you didn’t have time for lunch.” It didn’t need to be a question,. “When was your class?” he asked, reaching in and pressing the hypospray against Gabriel’s neck. 

“Eighteen hundred, then nineteen-thirty,” came the reply with an audible frown. Hugh knew what his teaching schedule was like, knew that they’d had to shoe-horn in an extra session when far too many cadet’s had signed up for his special module, than could be seated in the Malcolm Reed lecture theatre that Gabe insisted on using. 

“What then?” he asked, watching his vitals for a change.

“Sparring.”

“Did you have anything before you started?” 

“I had… soup. I don’t remember what sort, between classes.” There was a level of distress in his tone now and Hugh reached out to place a hand between his shoulder blades. 

“It’s ok,” he said. “It’s alright.”

“I had S7 afterwards. Before I left.”

“And then you came home,” Paul said, his obvious frustration barely contained, “and said you’d eaten.”

“I had…” said Gabriel, raising his head a few inches before pausing and lowering it again with a shuddering breath. 

“Just give it a few more minutes and the hypo will kick in. We can talk about why your electrolytes & blood sugars are so far out when you feel better.”

“But…” Gabriel said. “Sorry.”

“Shhh,” Hugh said, rubbing his hand back and forth. “Paul, would you go replicate some orange juice please?”

“Sure,” he said flatly, standing but leaning down to kiss the back of Gabriel’s head before heading back through to the kitchen.

“I think Paul’s cross with me,” Gabe said quietly, after a moment.

“I think you frightened him,” Hugh said frankly.

“I didn’t mean to.”

“I know.”

“I had S24, and I drank lots of water.”

“The water is good, the key with supplements though, is that they’re just that. Not replacements. They’re designed to be taken with a balanced diet they don’t provide the fuel your body needs Gabe, even if you’re not going to be going for long distance runs.”

“Plenty of fuel stored already,” he said quietly as Paul arrived back with the juice.

“Gabe?” Paul asked, handing the glass to Hugh before crouching down again. “Is this about that stupid uniform incident the other week? Is this…”

“Not as young as I was. Too much time behind a desk…” Gabe murmured sitting upright successfully this time and leaning his head back against the wall, his eyes still closed. 

“Fuck that, Gabe, you’re fitter than either of us by a country mile.” Paul said with feeling.

“Here,” Hugh said, holding the glass up to his lips. “Small sips.” The three of them sat there, with nothing but the sound of their breathing and the occasional clink of teeth against the glass to disrupt the silence.

“I split a seam,” Gabriel said eventually. “Do you know how durable Starfleet uniforms are? And I still managed to split a fucking seam.”

“I don’t know that what we were doing at the time was what those pants were really designed for,” Paul said gently, reaching out to caress Gabe’s head. 

“We can have a proper talk later,” Hugh said, packing up his kit, “but suffice to say, just because you don’t fit in the same size of uniform you did when you graduated, doesn’t mean that there’s a problem with your weight.”. Finishing, he looked seriously at the other man. “Really.”

“You’re stunning, Gabe,” Paul said, kneeling up and leaning in to kiss him, “and the last thing in the world I want is for you to do something stupid over the sake of a few pounds.”

“Believe me,” Hugh said, caressing the back of Paul’s head before leaning down to kiss Gabriel’s brow. “If there were a problem then I’d be the first to let you know.”

“We’re all sitting in the hall,” Gabriel said, as though he’d only just realised this.

“Yes. Yes we are,” said Hugh with a chuckle. “Think you could manage some pasta?”

“Can it be carbonara?” he asked quietly. “I swear, all I’ve been thinking about for weeks is Paul’s carbonara.” Hugh’s anxiety peaked at the mention of weeks, knew that this wasn’t over as a conversation, that Gabe’s reaction to the need to replicate a new uniform was only symptomatic of something much deeper that had been festerig since long before he knew them. Today though, he smiled and said, “Carbonara it is.”

**Author's Note:**

> Feed me!!!  
> *cough*  
> I'd love to hear your thoughts, here or on twitter @LHA_again  
> thanks for reading!  
> Lx


End file.
